Headlines & Stuff April 23, 2013

Written by: Digitally Approved

Here are some cool things we read about this past week:

Facebook Adds “What You’re Doing” Status Updates
Facebook users can now express what they are watching, reading, listening to, eating, drinking, or how they are feeling in status updates. For example, if you share that are you are watching Jurassic Park the movie, your post will contain the movie icon and a link to the movie’s Facebook Page. Jurassic Park would then be added to the Movies Section of your Timeline.

YouTube Wins Copyright Battle with Viacom
A federal judge has cleared YouTube of liability for infringing copyright by allegedly hosting tens of thousands of clips of content owned by Viacom. In a decision issued this week, U.S. District Court Judge Louis Stanton ruled that Google’s YouTube was protected by “safe harbor” provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which broadly gives sites immunity when users upload copyrighted material, as long as the sites remove the content upon request. The marks the second time that Stanton dismissed Viacom’s case, which the company filed in 2007.

LinkedIn Launches Major Mobile App Upgrade, Leads with Content
This week, LinkedIn released a considerable upgraded iOS and Android mobile phone app that emphasizes user personalization and brings forward the company’s growing content strategy. Version 6.0 most notably adds a personal newsfeed as the default mode. The app has highly accessible commenting and sharing tools, so that the user can engage in professional conversations while they are occurring. The new app also emphasizes personalization. A slider menu lets the user add shortcuts that access more than half a dozen key LinkedIn activities, such as one’s own groups, people who have viewed your profile, news and your own recent activity. With the release, LinkedIn also emphasized its international reach, reporting that 64% of its members are now located outside of the U.S. The app update expands language support to 15.

Facebook Launches Open Graph Mobile
Facebook this week, unveiled three new products at its Mobile Developer Conference in NYC that will put the company on an even faster track to becoming a mobile first platform. The company announced Open Graph Mobile, which takes Facebook’s social graphing product to the mobile platform for the first time. Facebook also released the latest figures for mobile, which include over 680 million mobile users and the fact that over 81% of iOS apps and 70% of top 100 grossing Android apps integrate with Facebook.

Twitter Looks to Emulate Google with Keyword Ad Targeting
This week, Twitter announced the ability for advertisers to target Promoted Tweets to specific keywords users may include in a tweet. For example, someone might tweet they are hungry and want a burrito. Taco Bell could bid on the words “hungry” and “burrito” to run a Promoted Tweet linking to a coupon code for a free burrito to that user and anyone else whose tweets include those two words. Advertisers can also import keywords they use on other platforms, such as Google’s AdWords.

Facebook Seeks 7-Figure Price Tag for Summer Debut of Video Ads
Facebook is hoping that its hotly anticipated video-ad units can be a more-than-$4-million-dollar a day business out of the gate – if its asking price is met. The social network still hasn’t finalized the format of the video ads, but it’s been shopping the product around the agencies, looking to lock down commitments for the first available units in June or July. While the format of the units isn’t totally nailed down, it is widely assumed that they’ll be autoplay and presented in a video player that expands beyond the main newsfeed. Assuming four daily advertisers will meet Facebook’s asking price – it would be earning more than $4 million daily from the ads.

Global Social Media

UK Leads the World For Twitter Users
A recent survey found that the usage of Twitter is highest in the UK, with 21% of respondents saying they frequently use the service at least once per week. The UK is followed by the U.S. with 18%, Italy with 14%, France with 9% and Germany with 8%.

Noteworthy Campaigns

Crowdsourced Music Video Records Viewers’ Cursors in Real-Time
Rock band Light Light recently collaborated with Amsterdam-based design studio Moniker to create a one-of-a-kind music video. The online video is interactive and allows viewers to participate simply by moving their mouse cursor around the screen. The interactive video is called “Do Not Touch” and is for the single “Kilo.” It invites users to take part by hovering their mouse cursor over certain objects through a set of instructions. The movement of the cursor is recorded in real-time and as more people participate in the experiment, more cursors will appear on the screen each time. Check it out here.

Audi Lets Fans Write the End to the Next Iron Man Comic Book
Audi has partnered with Marvel Entertainment for its latest campaign. The car company is creating a crowdsourced digital comic book featuring Iron Man. The campaign allows fans to decide how the story ends. Users can submit their sketches for the final panel of the comic book and the winning entry will be published. The ‘Steer the Story’ e-comic book features Tony Stark who goes on an adventure in the Audi R8 sportscar prototype. Users can vote for their favorite entry, but the final decision will be made by a panel of judges from Marvel.